Luc Courchesne: Framed Immersions

Luc Courchesne took part in the emergence of media arts thirty years ago when, as a video artist inspired by a generation of experimental filmmakers such as Michael Snow and Hollis Frampton, he adopted computer technologies. First delving into interactive portraiture, a great artistic tradition re-articulated in a new mould, his work has recently turned to another important genre, that of landscape. With his installations, “panoscopic” images, and a device of his own making used to create a sense of visual immersion, he transforms spectators into a visitors, actors and inhabitants of his experiential crafts. Born 1952 in Québec, Courchesne received a Bachelor’s degree from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax (1974), and a Master of Science in Visual Studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge (1984). He began his explorations in interactive video in 1984 when he co-authored Elastic Movies, one of the earliest experiments in the field, and since produced about 30 installation works and image series including Encyclopedia Chiaroscuro (1987), Portrait One (1990), Family Portrait (1993), Hall of Shadows (1996), Landscape One (1997),Passages (1998), Rendez-vous… (1999), Panoscopic Journal (1999-), Panoscope 360° (2000-), The Visitor: Living by Numbers (2001), Untitled (2004),Where are you? (2005), Horizons (2007), the Shores Series (2008-) and Icons (2009) in a co-creation with artist and choreographer Marie Chouinard.

His work is part of major collections in North America, Europe and Asia and has been shown extensively in galleries and museums worldwide including: the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Art Gallery of New South Wales (Sydney), Tokyo’s InterCommunication Center (ICC), La Villette (Paris), ZKM/Medienmuseum (Karlsruhe), the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, the National Gallery of Canada, the Fundacion La Caixa (Barcelona) and Beijing’s National Art Museum of China. Based in Montreal, Luc Courchesne is professor of design at Université de Montréal, founding member of the Society for Art and Technology [SAT], board member of the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec and member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.